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Thu April 24, 2008 - National Edition
Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 20 Doosan Infracore Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, scored his third consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series victory in the Corona Mexico 200 April 20 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez — the legendary former Formula 1 road course in downtown Mexico City.
Busch passed road course specialist Scott Pruett and his No. 40 Dodge for the lead with nine laps remaining in the 80-lap event around the 2.518-mi., eight-turn circuit. From there, he held off a small handful of pursuers, including Pruett and Marcos Ambrose, for his first career road course victory in any NASCAR series and his 14th career Nationwide Series win in 117 career starts. Busch also drove the No. 18 Toyota to victory in the previous two Nationwide Series events in Texas and Phoenix.
“It’s a pretty phenomenal day for these Joe Gibbs Racing guys. They did an awesome job once again,” said Busch, who led 22 laps in all in the Corona Mexico 200, including the final nine on his way to the checkered flag. “We ran up front a good bit of the race. Pruett had a little mishap in (turn) four and that enabled me to get by him cleanly. It looked like his car was fading a little bit, anyway, but our car stayed pretty decent during that whole time. If I ran a clean lap, I ran a good enough lap where the rest of those guys couldn’t get me. Luckily, I built up a pretty good lead. Ambrose was tough there at the end, and I started choking a little bit.
“I’ve got to thank Doosan for coming on board with us this week, and to Toyota for making it possible. It’s just awesome to come down here. Everybody wants to come down here to this race and win it. And only one guy gets to go home with the trophy. I’m glad it’s us.”
The Corona Mexico 200 marked Doosan Infracore’s first foray as a primary sponsor in a NASCAR race, with the effort being backed by its U.S. subsidiary, Suwanee, Ga.-based Doosan Infracore America Corp.
Busch’s 22 laps led in the Corona Mexico 200 (only Pruett had more with 39) gave him an astounding 626 laps led out of the 1,548 laps possible (40.4 percent) over the first nine races on the 35-race Nationwide Series schedule for 2008. In addition to his impressive numbers, Busch, along with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, have dominated the Nationwide Series this year by ringing up five wins, three poles and leading 934 of the 1,548 laps possible (60.3 percent).